Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Anything for the club of healthy brain enjoyers?

I'm not sure that this is a game with a 'best' ending. It seems more like a 'best ending for you' type of game. Maybe turning into a half-mindflayer demigod is the best ending for you, or maybe removing the tadpoles, mindflayers, and absolute from the surface of the material plane is the best ending. Maybe they are all great and you should play through a couple times to see the variations.

You're not actually feeling anything. It's all... in your head.

Get it? In your head?

haha, oh my goodness, i'm going to bed

Thinking of which kind of character would do such a thing and manipulate their own brain with these larvae of tentacled monstrosities, the Great Old One Warlock occurred to me.

I think any kind of power-hungry, Machiavellian person would. EDIT: Gale springs to mind.

Goo blade lock is going to be my one tadpole plaything

A power-hungry character I'd be playing would be likely to ask this question: what is power worth if it is not you wielding it? IMO you must not just be power-hungry, but borderline mad. Which is where the Great Old One Warlock comes in.

My problem with that claim is that I think even for power-hungry schemers there are just too many unknowns. By taking the tadpoles you're putting yourself potentially under the thumb of an entity you don't even know. You can't plot against a mark you're unaware of. You're just saying "I'll take this power and see what happens" when you know there is some kind of higher force at work.

I'm surprised I forgot this-

The Omeluum quest is one done with the intention of weakening or removing the parasite, but it makes you stronger and gives you an illithid power.

It could be that at the end of the day acquiring illithid powers is just going to happen, but HOW you go about it changes the consequences.

Perhaps you can acquire illithid powers without stuffing tadpoles in your brain and develop through other means that are harder, but limits the illithid influence over you yourself.

You forget the mad scientists, who do things because they can, without thinking about if they should...

I am going to laugh if those who indulge in the tadpole mastery end up becoming Mind Flayers at the end.

If I can still play as a mindflayer I'd take that as a win. Larian has said that we can embrace these powers risking our soul to save the forgotten realms or doom them...heavily implying there is choice, that you still have agency and the ability to act after whatever consequences or transformation, and that a good end may still be possible if you are so inclined. I think it would be very interesting to turn into a mind flayer that has all the memories of the host and isn't bound to an elder brain and still has agency to act...that is the greatest fear of the Illithids...their own nightmare and boogieman, they call him the Adversary. Would be very fun to see that happen in BG3.

My Durge Dragonborn GOOlock is pretty much a horribly afraid girl who wants to get away from those murderous urges she has and because of that shoves those things in her head. From that perspective it can also work.

That would be an interesting plot where the Adversary works against the Elder Brain and eventually becomes a good aligned Elder Brain with weaker playable Mind Flayers as a character race.

But that can happen for many other reasons as well, so it is not a true trade-off for using the tadpoles. And similarly, having a lot of friends is also separate from not using the tadpoles, so keeping one's friends is certainly not a reward/gain from not using the tadpoles. When it comes to keeping/losing one's friends and using/not using the tadpoles, those are two entirely separate things that cannot be conflated.

Yes I am speaking of the best ending for me, which would exactly be never ever using the tadpoles, while at the same time removing the tadpoles and eradicating the mindflayers and the Absolute and the cult of the dead three from Faerun. Will the game provide for this outcome (and too in a reasonable way where I don't have to play the game a certain "perfect" way)? I am highly skeptical.

This is still a big questionmark.
A lot of the game seems to be gated behind using the tadpole, both mechanics (power system) and story (dream).
Yet the beginning of the game makes it abundandly clear that tadpole = bad and you need to get it out fast. So there is a clear push not to use the tadpole and it fealt alteady strange how quickly the tadpole became a nonissue in Act 1 after that introduction.
And now it feels like players are actively punished to do what for most is the reasonable thing to (not) do.

Then why did Swen say this would be the case then?

He is a mortal man who can be wrong in his judgements?

The initial presentation is just the basic lore and information known about tadpoles and ceremorphosis but it soon becomes clear these are not normal tadpoles and this will not work the way it normally would. We learn that shadow-magic is keeping them in stasis, we learn that we can obtain powers from them, and then there is this mysterious "guardian" figure telling us we must embrace the powers of the tadpole and promises protection...all of these things are unprecedented. That's where people can adjust their plans as new information is presented. You must also remember that out party are a group of adventurers who gradually face tougher and tougher enemies...the tradeoff of getting some power from the tadpole to survive a bit longer vs dying now is a thing that could reasonably cross your character's mind...especially considering the tadpole is in stasis and can't complete ceremorphosis.